The ruling Waddani party is entering the most precarious moment of its young administration as a quiet but consequential showdown takes shape between President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi Irro and the party’s formidable chairman, Hirsi Haaji Ali.
The Central Committee meeting slated for December 30 and 31 is emerging as far more than a routine internal adjustment; it is a direct test of whether the party can remain united after its electoral victory or whether its internal contradictions will fracture Somaliland’s newest governing coalition.
The tension is driven by a political paradox that has left Waddani unusually vulnerable. Although the chairmen of all three national parties come from the same powerful clan, Waddani is the only one suffering from deep structural division.
Hirsi, one of Somaliland’s most influential political tacticians and long seen as Irro’s natural successor, has found himself boxed in by the very election that brought his party to power.
Irro’s victory effectively delays Hirsi’s own presidential ambitions by nearly a decade, a political horizon his camp views as untenable.
The President’s loyalists are now moving to reshape the internal hierarchy in a way that sidelines Hirsi without provoking outright rebellion.
Central to this plan is the anticipated promotion of Minister of the Presidency Khadar Hussein Abdi from Secretary General to First Deputy Chairman. Khadar, a disciplined strategist and trusted member of Irro’s core circle, is widely expected to use the position to fortify the President’s control over party machinery.
His elevation would signal a shift in the center of power—subtle enough to avoid triggering an open confrontation, but significant enough to restrict Hirsi’s room to maneuver.
The move also shores up the status quo by ensuring that any attempt to unseat Hirsi would require confronting a strengthened and highly loyal deputy leadership. It effectively freezes Waddani’s political timeline, ensuring that Hirsi’s path to the presidency remains long and uncertain.
In a calculated gesture of outreach, the vacated Secretary General position is reportedly being offered to the political constituency of former President Muse Bihi Abdi—an unmistakable attempt to court Kulmiye-leaning voters and rebalance the party’s electoral coalition.
Yet Hirsi’s ability to fight back is weakened by an uncomfortable reality: he struggles to consolidate support within his own clan, a significant portion of which has already defected to the opposition KAAH party.
This erosion of internal tribal support undermines his capacity to rally a faction capable of resisting Irro’s restructuring. Compounding this is the disillusionment of the Hawd region—a critical bloc in Waddani’s election win—whose leaders feel overlooked in the distribution of senior government posts.
Their frustration has become a political liability for both Irro and Hirsi, and it threatens to destabilize the party’s broader coalition at a vulnerable moment.
The upcoming reshuffle is expected to be forceful, with numerous deputy chairmen likely to be removed as part of an effort to streamline decision-making. But this efficiency drive risks amplifying old grievances at the exact moment Waddani requires cohesion.
Hirsi now faces a high-risk balancing act: preserve his political future, protect the party’s unity, and prevent the perception that he is losing control of the very institution he built.
The meeting will determine whether Waddani emerges stronger or whether the ruling party is heading toward an internal rupture that could define the next decade of Somaliland politics.
